Tips on Controlling Scope in E-learning Project Management

The harder part of eLearning project management is evaluating the impact of changes and waiting for the nod of your customer. Time is an important factor in project execution and delays may render your estimates irrelevant.

While managing your scope, keep an eye on time which is the main function for project cost and performance.

The changes to scope will result in poor design of your product. As a project manager, you must always be proactive by monitoring the scope at each milestone of the project. Collaborating continuously with the project team will go a long way in narrowing the impact of scope-creep.

Here are a few tips to control the scope of your project effectively.

Tip 1: Don’t assume the scope to be static. Try to identify potential scope problems that can “derail” your project. Do not hesitate to ask the tough questions and actively pursue scope issues. Allocate a certain amount of your budget to address problems that arise due to minor changes to the project scope.

Tip 2: Define the level of change that can be accommodated without major rework for each phase of the project. For instance, it’s not a big deal to add a requirement during the design phase. But doing the same during the verification phase can result in substantial rework.

Tip 3: Most scope problems that we encounter arise due to the improper validation of the scope at the beginning. Make sure that the project plan includes the validation of the requirements, architecture, and project assumptions. This is very useful to eliminate problems early and this paves the way for the successful completion of the project.

Tip 4: It is important that all stakeholders have a clear idea of what the project will deliver. It is advisable to demonstrate the visual and functional features of the product using prototypes. This prevents misunderstanding and provides clarity.

Tip 5: It is important to map the requirements to the scope. You need to insist that the stakeholders justify any changes they suggest. Scope creep can cause serious trouble by making the project dysfunctional, leading to time and cost overruns and failing to achieve the objective.

Tip 6: The purpose of managing the project scope is to improve predictability. A good project manager understands that scope-creep is inevitable and tries to overcome the problems associated with it effectively.

Tip 7: Train everyone – not just the project team and stakeholders. This ensures better control and management of the project and increases the chances of its success.

Tip 8: Before you document the project scope, gather requirements effectively by interviewing the stakeholders extensively. You need to clearly indicate the extent to which cost and time overruns are acceptable. For instance, you may set the acceptable limit for the cost overrun of your eLearning project, worth USD 10000, to 10%. See that the requests of change do not increase the project cost by more than USD 1000.

Scope validation and confirmation by the concerned stakeholders prevent unnecessary changes and help complete your project successfully within the budget and timeframe. .

Hope these tips help you control the scope of your projects. We’d love to have your views on project management.

About CommLab India

CommLab India addresses the learning and development needs of major organizations through its custom and rapid e-learning solutions, translations and mobile learning services. Since 2000, we have been offering technology-enabled solutions to accelerate workforce performance.

Our interactive online courses employ the best training strategies such as microlearning, game-based learning, and videos and are developed using the latest authoring tools. Read More